Sheinbaum explains her call to boycott TV Azteca: Tuesday’s mañanera recapped

Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds

Why today’s mañanera matters

Today’s mañanera was significant as President Claudia Sheinbaum qualified the call she made on Monday for people to not watch TV Azteca, a large mass media company that operates various television channels.

She declared that her remark was simply an “opinion,” not an attempt at censorship — despite claims to the contrary, including from TV Azteca itself. In calling for a boycott of TV Azteca, the president intensified a long-running dispute with Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the owner of the company, who she accused last year of funding an anti-government protest.

Also of note was Sheinbaum’s focus on positive foreign investment and trade data, good news at a time when the Mexican economy is recording anemic growth in annual terms, and contracted on a quarter-over-quarter basis in the first three months of 2026.

Sheinbaum highlights ‘2 pieces of very good news’

During her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum highlighted “two pieces of very good news” that came to light on Monday.

She noted that Mexico received US $23.59 billion in foreign direct investment in the first quarter of the year, a record high and an increase of 10.4% compared to the same period of 2025.

Sheinbaum also highlighted that Mexico’s export revenue increased 21.8% in the first four months of 2026 compared to the same period of last year. She noted that Mexico’s outlay on imports increased 19.9% in the period.

Foreign direct investment in Mexico hit a record high in the first quarter of 2026

Sheinbaum also acknowledged that Mexico recorded a trade surplus of just over $3.5 billion between January and April.

“More exports than imports and record foreign direct investment — two very good pieces of news,” she said.

Sheinbaum accuses TV Azteca of conducting a deceitful ‘offensive’ against her government  

A reporter asked the president about “the barrage of attacks” against her after she called on Mexicans on Monday to not watch TV Azteca, a multimedia conglomerate owned by billionaire businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego.

“Don’t watch TV Azteca,” Sheinbaum said Monday, before accusing Salinas Pliego of spreading “bold-faced” lies.

Sheinbaum’s call for a boycott of TV Azteca came after a reporter said that a collective promoted by people close to Salinas had launched a campaign against the federal government that includes labeling Mexican officials “narco-politicians.”

TV Azteca responded to the president in a statement, saying that what she said on Monday morning was a “clear attempt at censorship and a direct attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

No vean TV Azteca, dice la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum.
Añade que ante noticias falsas ya va a establecer el premio al mitómano de la semana. pic.twitter.com/V7gAxyGNCg

— JorgeArmandoRocha (@JorgeArmandoR_) May 25, 2026

On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said that TV Azteca is carrying out an “offensive against the Mexican government with a lot of lies.”

She asserted that Salinas — who appears to have presidential aspirations — decided to use TV Azteca to “attack” her government due to his discontent with being forced to make a large payment to the federal tax agency SAT to cover back taxes.

“Look,” Sheinbaum said.

“They say there is no freedom of speech. There is so much freedom of speech that, from a television network, the government is constantly attacked, even with lies,” she said.

“And there are increasingly more lies. What do we have? The right of reply because we’re not going to get into the issue of taking away [television] licenses,” Sheinbaum said.

“… What we have is this space to be able to say to the people of Mexico what is happening,” she said, referring to her weekday press conferences.

Sheinbaum said that when she called on people not to watch TV Azteca, she was expressing an “opinion,” not carrying out an act of “censorship.”

“It’s an opinion, an opinion. Why? Because we’re not censoring them. Yesterday they were able to say everything they wanted to say on their television programs — in all of them,” she said, adding that TV Azteca commentators on Monday spent their air time criticizing her and the government while disseminating “many falsehoods.”

Cuando el poder llama a sabotear un medio de comunicación por ser crítico, lo que busca es censurar.

Al @GobiernoMX le incomoda que en #TVAzteca sigamos señalando la corrupción, su complicidad con el narco y el mal gobierno que han llevado.

Pero que les quede claro: ¡no nos van… pic.twitter.com/yqw5yjSMRQ

— TV Azteca (@Azteca) May 25, 2026

“They can keep talking, but we also have the responsibility to inform because the right to information is in the constitution,” Sheinbaum said.

“[We have the responsibility] to report what is false and what is true,” she said.

“When I say ‘don’t watch a television network,’ it’s an opinion,” Sheinbaum reiterated.

“But I’m not exercising the power of the state to censor a television network. See the difference. In the past, they did censor and they [TV Azteca] know that. They know that [past] presidents spoke to television and radio stations by phone to tell them to ‘remove that presenter,’… ‘to remove that journalist who is damaging me, who is speaking ill of me,’” she said.

Sheinbaum subsequently accused TV Azteca of playing politics.

“They are not exercising the right to information, but rather playing politics,” she said.

Sheinbaum praises AMLO’s son for his work as a Morena official 

A reporter noted that Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, one of the sons of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, decided to leave his position as secretary of organization of the ruling Morena party in order to seek to represent Morena as a candidate for deputy in Tabasco in next year’s federal lower house election. She asked Sheinbaum to offer an opinion on López Beltrán’s organizational work.

“Andrés did a very good job,” the president responded.

She said that López Beltrán helped to increase Morena’s membership by some 12 million people, turning the political party into one of the largest in the world.

“[He did] extremely good work as secretary of organization. He’s a great organizer,” Sheinbaum said.

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